Electrical current directly derived from a nuclear decay process is frequently referred to as an “alpha-voltaic” or “beta-voltaic” effect, depending on whether the charged particle emitted by a particular nucleus is an alpha particle or a beta particle, respectively. Previously, a major drawback when attempting to use energy derived from a nuclear decay series to power devices in remote locations has been an inefficiency of the energy conversion process.
Tritium-containing polymers are described in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20050217782 to Agostini, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20040053708 to Hebert; U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,100,968 and 4,889,660 to Jensen et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,020,003 to Steinberg et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,124,610 to Conley et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 6,418,177 to Stauffer et al. A description of efforts to exploit the nuclear decay process of a radioactive material is found in “Final Scientific/Technical Report: A Nuclear Microbattery for MEMS Devices; U.S. Department of Energy Award No. DE-FG07-991D13781,” published by James Blanchard et al. of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Other references to nuclear batteries include U.S. Pat. No. 6,479,920 to Lal et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 6,118,204 to Brown; U.S. Pat. No. 5,859,484 to Mannik et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,606,213 to Kherani et al.; and U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,774,531 and 6,949,865 to Gadeken. All of the foregoing are incorporated herein by reference.